With our correspondent in Antananarivo, Sarah Tetaud
On 7th December last, two-thirds of the deputies tabled a motion of censure once morest the government. The same evening, the President of the Republic brought together around sixty deputies from his party to demand that they backtrack. The next day, the President of the National Assembly announced that the motion of censure was inadmissible.
A clear violation of the separation of powers, in the eyes of some deputies, who filed a petition with the High Constitutional Court.
Since then, the HCC has delivered its opinion, agreeing with the President of the National Assembly. An inadmissible decision, for many parliamentarians, who denounced yesterday ” the flagrant lack of independence of this Court.
Facing the press and under the eyes of three former heads of state (Marc Ravalomanana, Hery Rajaonarimampianina and Rivo Rakotovao) and several presidents of political parties, the group of 23 signatory deputies, led by the independent deputy Eleonore Johasy, castigated THE ” dangerous game » played by the HCC:
« The HCC confirmed that a verification of the 105 signatures should be done by the President of the National Assembly except that this is not mentioned anywhere, neither in our Constitution nor in the internal regulations of the National Assembly. So it’s purely the fruit of their [des juges, NDLR] imagination. This is a very big problem because it is an attack on the constitutional order. »
At the end of the year, it is this same court which will have to proclaim the winner of the presidential election. For Narson Rafidimanana, another independent elected representative, these ” displays of bias he says, are a very bad signal: We deputies from Madagascar, we can no longer place our trust in the HCC today because they are not neutral at all! They are at the boot of power, at the boot of the executive! »
An executive increasingly abused by his own camp. Several IRD deputies, the presidential party, came to swell the ranks of the collective of protesters, like Marie-Thérèse Volahaingo: “ More and more deputies, especially the IRDs, are challenging the way the government manages the National Assembly. But most are afraid of the president. Fear that they will not be granted infrastructure in the districts. Fear of threats, orders. Out of 105, signatories of the motion of censure, there were 70 IRD deputies ! »
The next parliamentary session, at the beginning of May, already promises to be under high tension.
